He and 3 friends played golf as often as possible at the Sleepy Hollow Course.

He lived two doors down and I saw him loading up to play golf and as he placed his golf bag into his van I saw the butt of a shotgun or rifle sticking out amongst his clubs.

I asked him why the firearm and he told me it was his turn as PROTECTOR and then he explained when playing the holes nearest the northern edge of the property, the nearby residents would sneak onto the course and rob the players. He said his responsibility that day was to play, putt first and fast and return to the golf cart so he could access his shotgun rapidly if needed while the others putted. He also added, during times of heavy rains, the shotgun was also handy to eliminate snakes.

Several months later he called late one afternoon and asked if I could pick him up at Sleepy Hollow, his van had been stolen form the parking lot.

The group moved their memberships to the Van Zandt County Country Club in Canton.

Where is the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course? It must be a rough neighborhood. If you had to "smoke" somebody, I wonder how you would stand legally? The course management would have to take some of the heat I suspect. Jim

jgoodman Wrote:
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> Where is the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course? It must be
> a rough neighborhood. If you had to "smoke"
> somebody, I wonder how you would stand legally?
> The course management would have to take some of
> the heat I suspect. Jim

Sleepy Hollow was just west of the Trinity River and north of Loop 12. 4950 Great Trinity Forest Way would be a good address for it. The City of Dallas and Corps of Engineers built a "chain of wetlands" there. I don't think it turned out the way that they wanted. It is largely choked out with invasive weeds and hard to get around in there.

Sleepy Hollow backed up to the Joppa Community, which, way back when could have been dangerous. Still can be, sometimes.

Nothing wrong or illegal about open carrying a rifle down there if you take a walk on the public property there.

Quite a story. Bizarre given known hydrological history that anyone would have done what they did in building the thing. The article touches on a number of interesting aspects of Dallas's history. I didn't know that Dedman and Brookhaven et al. got going there. Sister in-Law lives on Brookhaven development. That is what made Farmer's Branch a known entity to many in Dallas.

Oddly, an extant golfing web site describes the club as if it is still operating:

old man from dallas Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This place?
>
> [www.dmagazine.com]
> 2016/march/riverlake-country-club-trinity-river-fl
> ood/
>
> Quite a story. Bizarre given known hydrological
> history that anyone would have done what they did
> in building the thing. The article touches on a
> number of interesting aspects of Dallas's history.
> I didn't know that Dedman and Brookhaven et al.
> got going there. Sister in-Law lives on
> Brookhaven development. That is what made
> Farmer's Branch a known entity to many in Dallas.
>
> Oddly, an extant golfing web site describes the
> club as if it is still operating:
>
> [www.texasgolf.com]
> .cfm?recordid=13458

Yes, the D Magazine piece is the one featuring the now defunct Riverlake CC turned Sleepy Hollow CC. I went with the author of that piece to walk the old course a couple years ago.

The Audubon Center is located on Longacre Lane south of Great Trinity Forest Way. Radiating out from the museum is at least 9 miles of improved trails. It is reasonably safe, but there is wildlife such as wild pigs, coyotes, bobcats and wolves so one should take precautions.

Norma Davis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Audubon Center is located on Longacre Lane
> south of Great Trinity Forest Way. Radiating out
> from the museum is at least 9 miles of improved
> trails. It is reasonably safe, but there is
> wildlife such as wild pigs, coyotes, bobcats and
> wolves so one should take precautions.

There are no wolves in the Great Trinity Forest, or anywhere within hundreds of miles (the nearest being in Minnesota). Coyotes and bobcats have never been known to attack people. A bobcat weighs about 25-30 lbs, and feasts on rodents, rabbits, small birds. A coyote weighs around 50 lbs, and preys on rodents, rabbits, small birds, insects, carrion, fruits, some other plant material. There is no documented case of wolf predation on people in North America. Feral hogs and feral dogs have attacked people, and one should keep an eye on these critters, but mostly they'll run from you if you throw something at them.

Norma Davis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Audubon Center is located on Longacre Lane
> south of Great Trinity Forest Way. Radiating out
> from the museum is at least 9 miles of improved
> trails. It is reasonably safe, but there is
> wildlife such as wild pigs, coyotes, bobcats and
> wolves so one should take precautions.

The Great Trinity Forest can be safe. It is also incredibly dangerous if one runs into the wrong people. There are a lot of wrong people down there. I have been shot at, intentionally shot at, many times in the woods there. At least one person went to prison and has since been deported due to that incident at McCommas Bluff. Since pioneer times there has been lawless degenerates in that area.

Last time I had my life threatened was by two males stripping metal off of graves on the backside of the Lincoln Cemetery off the Rylie Road area. Armed with hand tools and box cutters they thought I would be an easy mark carrying a camera. Oh, so very wrong for them to think that was a good idea.

Back in the '90s, I played on a team in the company golf league. The league switched to a different course. There was a tee box and a green in a remote area of the course that were just across a chain link fence from an apartment complex occupied by "minorities". There had been numerous incidents of golfers being accosted and robbed there.

We sometimes saw police cars in the apts. parking lot watching the remote area. One of my golf partners kept a loaded shotgun in his golf bag.

Fred, I hope you don't take offense at this. Probably, the apartments in question were occupied by low income residents. As you are surely well aware, when income level is controlled for in studies of criminal activity, members of minority groups prove to be no more likely to be involved in crime than any other members of society. Crime is correlated with economic conditions in a neighborhood, but when economic conditions are taken into account, not with race or ethnicity. And the majority of the low income residents of high crime districts would definitely live elsewhere, away from the crime, which they do not participate in but suffer from disproportionately, if they could. That applies to both minority and majority low income residents.

Something to think about.

Dave, who grew up in low income neighborhoods for the most part, but thanks to good public schools and state universities was able to live as an adult in better places

I would doubt that a plea of poverty in a courtroom would have any impact in front of a judge or jury in a case of crimes against another person like robbery, burglary of a vehicle, murder. All which are common along the river bottoms. It can be extremely dangerous in some areas.

The riverbottoms are getting somewhat safer. But so many murderers take their victims there that it is hard to recommend it to people as a place to safely visit without taking personal safety precautions.

Ben, I certainly didn't mean to imply that poverty is an excuse for committing crime, especially violence. I was just pointing out that it is more related to criminal behavior than either race or ethnicity. However, with regards to criminal justice, both youth and poverty are frequently considered by police personnel, prosecutors, and courts to be mitigating factors. These agents have to make judgement calls that would baffle most of us. Thank goodness, many a juvenile who was treated with leniency grew up to be a model citizen. Of course, others failed to do so as well. But society in general is well served when it works to alleviate the conditions that promote crime, both in terms of reduction in crime, and in monetary costs when compared to prisons and punishment.

Violent acts of course need to be addressed, and the persons who commit them brought to justice.